Alabama

YOUR VIEW: Southern Co., other utilities cry wolf over EPA rules

Southern Co. estimates that compliance with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new emission restrictions will cost utilities $13 billion. That is an overstatement of costs, as the range of costs I have seen is $2 billion to $5 billion per year.

Some plants, those that have done more already to control particulate emissions, may have no additional cost to meet the new rule. Frankly, Southern Co. may be out more because it has been slow to upgrade plants and has, with the help of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, generally done the least it could do.

Coal companies and some utilities like Southern Co. are offering Americans a false choice between jobs/economic stability and public health as the debate over the EPA's mercury and air toxics rule heats up. But a number of utilities across the country want the nation to know the truth: The time for the air toxics rule is now.

In a July 11 letter to congressional leaders, 36 progressive energy companies noted that delaying the air toxics rule will generate uncertainty among investors as well as companies already preparing for compliance. This uncertainty will slow investments and economic recovery. Unlike Southern Co., they have planned and are prepared to meet the requirements of the new rule. What do they know that Southern Co. apparently does not?

The benefits of the new rule dwarf the costs and are estimated to range from $53 billion to $140 billion per year, and come mostly from the reduction in small particulate emissions the new regulation will achieve. The controls would prevent 6,800 to 17,000 premature deaths, 11,000 nonfatal heart attacks, 5,300 hospitalizations for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, 850,000 lost work days and 5.1 million days when adults restrict normal activities because of respiratory symptoms caused by particulate emissions.

The electric power industry has cried wolf in the past, and there is little reason to believe it is not doing the same thing today.